Splatalot Defenders: Neon
by akl110998233
Summary: Now with the Neon gems in their possession, now to face the newest enemy in town and fight in his six rounds of madness. Will they defeat Ivar and his alliances once and for all or will some foul play keep them from reaching that goal?
1. Round One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Splatalot.**

Kyle was sitting crossed legged on his bed with a blue parker pen in his mouth. He was gently biting it as he thought of what to write down. He wasn't sure why or when he started biting pens, there as some reassuring about biting something that couldn't be broken. He had a pad of lined paper lay out in front of him, carefully placed on top of his laptop so he could write something and not get pen on is bed. James had suggested that he start a diary so he his could recap events to his parents and tell him about his adventures.

 _Dear…_

Kyle paused, he was not going to write diary after that word. That was too girly for him. Maybe something else? Nah! He'll just go with whatever.

 _Dear anyone who will listen_

 _I know this is weird and probably crazy that I'm writing a random letter about my 'feelings but I guess it's for the best. Now, where to begin? At the moment I'm feeling tired but that's because James has me training 24/7 and has cut down my free time considerably which, personally, I think is child cruelty but you don't want to mess with James. Although it may not seem like it, he does care,_

"Kyle!" James shouted from the top of the stairs, "Training now! And you can bring your letter."

 _very deep down._

The yellow defender sighed heavily as he put picked his pen from his bed with his pad of paper underneath his arm and jumped onto the floor with a loud bang, notifying James that he was actually coming and not deliberately ignoring him, unlike last time which lead to James literally kicking his door open and stomping in and towering over his bed, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. That only happened this morning, after breakfast, twenty seconds after the yellow defender brushed his teeth.

Making his way to the training room, he was shocked to discover that his team mates were already sitting on the soft, blue mats with their legs crossed waiting for him. Kyle glanced over to James, who was wearing his 'you're late' expression. Looking away and rolling his eyes, Kyle dropped down next to Amy and crossed his legs as well, all five of them looking very obedient.

"Right, from hearing about your last fight-" James started straight away only to be interrupted Kyle straight away.

"And only fight."

James sighed, maybe too dramatically for this conversation, glared at Kyle but continued anyway, "I think that you're not using the Neon powers to their full potential."

"It _was_ our first battle." Drake defended.

"I know but with the neon gems being the 'younger brother' of the JCD gems, I think that theoretically they should have the same amount of power and auxiliary weapons which if my memory services me correctly Kyle, who all activated on your first fight."

"How did you activate them?" Amy asked intrigued, she knew full well how useful any extra auxiliary weapon is to have. Deep in her mind, she would ask herself, would we have defeat Harvey with we had the auxiliary weapons?

"We didn't there we just there." Kyle reflected looking at his friends. It was true. He had never shouted anything specific in order to activate them nor had Charles or James informed him of having any actually weapons, "They just simply appeared when we needed them."

"Maybe that's why we didn't have any for Dino time." Josh stated entering in on the conversation that had erupted in the last few minutes, "Maybe the Dino time power didn't think that we needed it so prevented us from activating them and James finding the data codes and software for them."

"Possible reason." James agreed nodding his head, it was definitely plausible.

"Or maybe there weren't any." Kyle suggested, "It was Astrid who designed the Dino powers."

"Yes but Astrid hasn't designed the Neon gems. Charles did." James argued back, "And I'm sure he would have left some auxiliary weapons."

"Yeah, well Charles wasn't as trustworthy as everyone thought was he? He had many secrets did her? Let's count. Umm, the whole underground lab, the Lionheart Force, the JCD gems, the neon gems, oh and what else…ah yes, he forget to tell anyone that I existed!"

"So he had a few secrets, which he kept for good reason but he gave you everything he needed and provided you with the correct information when you required it."

"I don't know, I wasn't here was I? I was the secret fifth Jr defender hidden away from all of this mess!"

"That was your parents' choice, not his. They moved away and decided to give you a normal life"

"Well that worked out _so_ well didn't it? I was bullied, isolated from everyone else due to these powers, and not informed about anything in fact the Jr defenders were still as surprised as I was when we were given the JCD gems and they lived here!"

"Enough guys!" Drake shouted above them, "We get it, the past is confusing but Arthur and Harvey are still out there and we do need to stop them."

"Drake's right." Zoey said standing up with the red defender, "Arguing isn't getting us anywhere."

 _When I had my break down James was there for me, in fact my whole team were and I am eternally grateful for that but it doesn't stop the feeling of loneliness for rising back up. I don't know why I feel alone, I just do. I can't really explain it. My friends talk to me and include me in their circle of conversation and at school I chat to lots of people so why do I still feel lonely. Honestly, it's been going on for months now and I think my friends think that I'm okay now and I'm back to normal but what is normal? When I was a young child, normal was the three of us (Mum, dad and me) at our house, me going to school every day and getting picked on and not being able to control my powers. In 2031, it was living in the castle with the Jr defenders by my side ad us hanging out and occasionally saving Pearl Canyon from whatever machine the villain had created. Now, I suppose normal is me being in this Castle with only the moat for company and my friends staying round for a sleepover and training. Going back to James, he's really starting to annoy me. I just know that he's waiting for me to break down again; it wouldn't surprise me if everyone else is but I'm not going to. I'm a lot stronger than they think I am, even if I do say so myself. I will not have a mental break down._

"Hey." Amy greeted walking up to Kyle after James had done his training/arguing session. Her friend in question had finished writing on his paper pad and was now sorting out the games cupboard by placing them in alphabetical order as punishment for his back talk.

"Hey." He greeted back placing scrabble in the correct place.

"Listen." She started doubtfully causing Kyle to turn his head in concern as he thought that she was in trouble or another worse scenario. Luckily, his worry was short lived as Amy continued, "My dad is collecting this fire fighter award from the mayor and I'm allowed to bring a friend me with so I was wondering if you wanted- could come."

"Sure, when is it?" Kyle asked now standing up and slowly pulling the pad of paper closer to him, forgetting about the board games in the category T-Z.

"This afternoon at 2. I know its short notice and you're probably busy with James and that pad of paper..." Amy rambled.

"I can do that." Kyle confirmed cutting off her rambling, "Where should I meet you?"

"Outside the town hall." Amy replied gleeful, "I'll see you there oh and it's casual clothes."

"I'll see you there." Kyle replied smiling and picking up the next game off the floor and placing it back into the cupboard.

Amy left the room smiling her heart out. Unfortunately, her team mates were kindly waiting for her and seconds later were already questioning why she had such a smile on her face.

"What did you do?" Josh asked walking next to her down the corridor. Zoey and Drake were directly behind them with a keen ear desperate to hear any gossip that they could get their hands on.

"I just asked Kyle to this award thingy. That's all." She answered causing her friends to grin even wider, if that was possible.

"So like a date?" Drake questioned jokily and in his best girly impression.

"No! Just as friends." Amy responded. Of course her friend rolled their eyes in response knowing that she warned to actually ask Kyle out but was scared. Amy ignored this response. Every time she would mention Kyle and an event, the others would automatically assume she asks him because she may (or may not) have a little crush on him and just because she asks him first did not mean that secretly she wanted this to be a date. Nope, that would be weird. Totally weird. She didn't want this secretly to be a date. There only fourteen, what would be the point in dating now? Right?

After he had successfully placed the games away in alphabetical order, Kyle picked up his belongings and left the training room and wondered into his bedroom. He glanced down at the clock which presented 11:54 in bright red figures. The yellow defender sighed as he threw the pad and pen onto the bed and left again to make his way to the control room, which meant going down three flights of stairs. Seriously, this castle needed a lift. It was 2033! The castle was completely out of date with the modern times. Nothing had changed since 2009! And it wasn't like they couldn't afford a complete make-over, they could easily but thinking deeper into the idea, was revamping the castle a good idea, especially with fifteen defenders and about eighty percent of them having opposing views so maybe keeping the castle like this was to stop all the foreseeable arguing about furniture.

"James." Kyle greeted, waking himself out of his thoughts and walking into the control room only to find his mentor drawing on some scrappy pieces of paper. The mentor looked up at his student, placing the scrappy pieces on paper into a draw and awaiting for a question that Kyle was undeniably about to ask, "Just to let you know... before I ask... that your definitely not my first person for go to advice about this topic and frankly, I don't know why I am but seeing as you're the only one here and I need instant feedback and views, I had no choice."

James signed indicating that Kyle should hurry up with the question. He didn't look offended by the comments made. This meant to things, the positive one being that James agreed with Kyle that he wasn't the person for go to advice and the second negative reason being that James was fed up with Kyle's comments already and was having enough of them.

"Well." Kyle continued, "Amy asked me to this ceremony thingy this afternoon and before you comment I said I would go but that's not the question. I was wondering... was she asking me out on a date or just as a friend."

"Oh Jr defenders, why did you leave me here alone?" He muttered quietly hoping Kyle wouldn't here, and then he stood up straight and looked at the boy, "Honestly, I would assume friends to be on the safe side but if and only if she gives you any clues indicating that it is a date then you know the answer.

"Okay and thanks… I think." Kyle said walking back to his bedroom.

 _How does one tell the difference between a date and a friendly event? It's times like this where I wish the Jr defenders were still here. Annaka would definitely know the difference. She would go on about body language and use of words. I still don't know how that would help me figure it out. I do miss them terribly. I miss Jack ordering us about and Zsa-Zsa complaining about everyone's common sense, Danny's pranks and weird sense of humour and Annaka's life lessons. If I shut my eyes hard enough I can still remember sitting at the dining room listening to them talking._

~Ooooo~

"Kyle!" Amy shouted running up to him and hugged. She was wearing a short blue dress with white ballet pumps. Her blonde hair was tied up in a high pony, which was rare to see as the blue defender preferred having it down. Kyle tensed up for a moment still not comfortable about being hugged but relaxed into it seconds later.

"Hey." Kyle greeted back as he released the hug.

"Thanks for coming." She exclaimed then looked to the overly posh town hall, "How do I look?"

" _The thing with girls Kyle is that they loved being complimented. Always tell a girl that her outfit looks lovely."_

" _Not nice! Nice implies that they haven't put any effort into it."_

"You look lovely." Kyle stated remembering Jack and Danny's advice from a year ago then looked down to his yellow shirt and black jeans, "Better than me anyway."

Kyle could just imagine, if Jack and Danny were here spying on him, that they would smack their hands into their face in despair about that last comment. However, Amy just giggles and dragged Kyle inside the town hall. She led him down the bright and pristine corridor into the events room. He looked in shock at how many people were here sitting down waiting for the major. He had never seen this many people in his life. This made the hospital seem like general gathering of people.

"Come on this way." Amy said pulling Kyle by the hand and down the left side of all the chairs. He calculated that there were roughly ten rows of chairs and sixteen chairs in each row making 160 people in one room. The blue defender stopped at two empty seats right at the front of the room. Obviously, it was for them as Amy's mum was sitting proudly in one of them. She was sitting up straight and clutching her hands together.

Amy sat down next to her mother and Kyle sat down next to a… interesting women. She had decided that today, she would wear a very flowery blazer covered with tropical flowers (Kyle presumed) and skirt with a bright pink blouse. Her hair was dyed red and was in a messy pixie cut. Her lips were plastered with red lipstick and she wore pink eyeshadow to match her blouse. He hoped that she wasn't a relative of Amy's.

"Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls." The mayor greeted as he walked on stage with his familiar blue suit and his messy brown hair that spiked up all around his head. James had once commented that Pearl Canyon's mayor once reminded him of someone called Mayor Quimby off the Simpsons. Kyle never understood that reference but had remembered it anyway, "Now and then we have heroes of the town, some help sell cookies for charity and some run around in brightly coloured outfits destroying machines."

Kyle and Amy grinned at each other at the last comment, the pair of the having to suck in their bottom lip to stop them from bursting out in laughter.

"But one hero has shown no limits, he has gone the extra mile. He ran into a burning building and saved not only a six year old child but a four month old baby as well. Today, he is the town hero and I am honoured to give him this glorious medal of bravery and honour to now chief firefighter John Richards."

Everyone clapped and cheered as the hero fighter came on stage. The interesting woman stood up and screamed relentlessly as he shyly came on stage much to the amusement of Kyle and suspiciousness of Amy and her mother. Kyle remained seated and continued clapping. The major shook John's hand and presented the medal as the paparazzi took photos causing various white flashes to appear from around the room.

Suddenly, the doors crashed open, everything stopped and everyone turned around to see who dared to ruin this glorious moment. Ten Blinders stood waiting at the door, lifeless and still. Some screamed then the whole room came to life. The ten Blinders crashed into the room; the interesting women screamed her heart out, deafening Kyle in his right ear. Everyone crashed, pushed and screamed at each other in order to leave. The desperate ones climbed through the windows, even Amy's parents had deserted their daughter leaving just the yellow and blue neon defenders on their own. Weirdly, the Blinders didn't attack until everyone had left the room, which meant one thing. They were here for them. Kyle and Amy stepped forward as did the Blinders.

"Neon gems! Unlock the colour!" Kyle shouted cringing inside.

" **Neon Yellow!"**

" **Neon Blue!"**

The two defenders ran forwards. Kyle ducked flying punches and kicked the Blinders inches back before kicking again and pushing them into the chairs, causing them to fall and break into heaps of metal. The Blinder, however, was not damaged and stood back and tried to grab Kyle. In response, he collapsed to the floor and rolled away before jumping back up and kicking the Blinder down to the floor destroying it before moving onto Blinder number two.

Amy blocked the flying punches aimed at her and kicked the Binder in the shin. The machine didn't budge instead it crossed it arms waiting for Amy's next move, this time she pushed the Blinder back and watched as it was taken back slightly allowing Amy enough time to kick it again. The Blinder fell flat back against the wall automatically becoming a punch bag for Amy to train on. She punched until her arms gave out and the Blinder fell onto the floor glitching.

" **Neon Red!"**

" **Neon Green!"**

" **Neon Pink!"**

The three remaining defenders jumped in the air and summer salted into the room, immediately getting down to the fighting and deciding the work as a time. First, Zoey would distract them and high kicked them away from here gracefully leading them to Josh who would grab random objects from around the room and kick them at the Blinders before finally they would fall backwards in Drake's area and he would grab them from behind and shove them against the wall, in pairs. The trio watched as the fell to the ground.

"Glad you could join us." Kyle commented running over to his team mates still in his defenders uniform.

"As if we had a choice in coming." Drake joked.

"Giving half the chance I doubt you would." Amy replied.

"Defenders!" A voice boomed throughout the room, the five of them skidded around to look at Arthur standing there with his signature evil smirk on his face, "I see round one is over."

"Round one?" Josh questioned, if this was round one, how many more rounds are there going to be. This was seriously messed up. None of them had thought of a fight as a round before. They had just seen it as protecting the city and unfortunately for them rounds meant twist and surprise 'gifts'. Josh looked back at Arthur, who was still grinning like a mad man waiting to elaborate on his plan.

"There will be four more gruesome rounds before you fight me for the final, making a total of six rounds. In each remaining round, you will all be tested to your limits and you will all fail."

"You clearly haven't been following out track record." Zoey exclaimed back crossing her arms. If she had a dollar for every person who said that then she would no longer have to do the washing up at home, "The defenders never fail."

"Actually, you do." Another voice peeped out of the shadows. The man walked forwards and wished he could see the shocked looks on the defenders faces, "I see you have upgraded somewhat."

"Harvey Lewis. We were starting to wonder where you had got to." Kyle greeted unpleasantly.

"Clearly, you weren't looking hard enough." Harvey replied back whilst looking at the broken blinders the turning his head to Arthur, "I thought you said these robots were super machines."

"They were until the upgrade." Arthur explained saying the last part in a muttered tone. Harvey rolled his eyes and adverted his attention to the five defenders, "Well we better be going, don't stay up to late."

With that, Harvey teleported both himself and Arthur out of the room leaving five defenders worried to their bones. There were five more rounds? Rounds of what? Fighting? Hardly, with Harvey and Arthur now partners in crime, the defenders would surely be tested to their limits.


	2. Round Two

**A/N: Hey, hope you're enjoying the story. This chapter will be done in Amy's POV.**

I sat on my bed looking out of the window and into my small garden with occupied a small swing fit for a four year old, a purple slide and a brown rotting shed which dad promised that he would repaint at some point. The grass desperately needed cutting and was not the desired green that came into everyone's head when they thought of garden but instead a horrible murky yellow colour. To be honest my garden looked more like a ghost town than it did place of luxury and freedom compared to Drake's garden. His had a small pond where she could see the three golden fish swimming around. His grass was lush and green and his shed was chocolate brown. His garden looked perfect. So why my parents brought this house in particular I would never know! All the walls needed painting, everyone room needed a new carpet and they were still in the progress of having their new kitchen fitted and they had been here six weeks.

To be fair, if my parents didn't buy this house then my life would have never have changed. I would still be a normal teenager probably sitting at home watching TV and doing homework all whilst trying to find a place in society. Yep, I certainly did have a lot of people to thank but Thorne's question from the other day was still hitting me hard.

" _So, did my daughter choose you as her successor or was it name out of a hat?"_

He had a point, what would Zsa-Zsa think of me? Was I doing the blue defender legacy proud? Or was I failing? I wasn't naïve, I had seen footage of Zsa-Zsa fighting off the past robot machines and had seen how impressive she was at fighting. I had also witness how much Kyle admired her knowledge and that there were situations when he was lost without her. Kyle didn't rely on me for that same knowledge because he couldn't. I'm not eighteen, of however old she is now and hadn't been through any tough experiences unlike Zsa-Zsa. No, I had to rely on Kyle for any kind of knowledge including school work. I am nothing like the amazing former blue defender and will probably never be. To compare us further, we don't even have the same attitude. Zsa-Zsa was slightly frosty, sarcastic and would try to hide all emotions whereas I am an open book. Everyone could tell what I feel like that day. There had been successful attempts at sarcasm but that it's far as the similarities go. But the question still hung over my head. Would Zsa-Zsa have actually chosen me given the chance?

Urgh! I was doing it again! My parents always told me not to put myself down and always think the best in me and I guess they're right. Then again, I think they were talking about school not saving Pearl Canyon from a psycho. That had always been a continuing trait of mine. Since I was small and in kinder garden, I would always let other people put me down whether it was over a painting or writing a story and to make matters worse I would give into it and try to make it better, whether that was painting the sky a lighter shade of blue or saying that my holiday was great instead of boring. I thought childhood was simple. Everyone would laugh, have a great time, meet up on Saturdays for a shopping spree (actually, I do that with Zoey but still) and have no worries. Well maybe back in the sixties. In my time all that matters are what grades you get and which college you get into.

"Amy, someone's at the door for you." My mum shouted up the stairs with slight worry in her voice.

Slowly, I uncrossed my legs and tiptoed over my floor trying to make as little sound as possible. A man? What did he look like? Was it Arthur? Harvey? Ivar? Had they found out where I lived? Was this going to be a broad daylight kidnapped? Oh God! The others would never find me? I stepped down the stairs, trying to avoid the ones that creaked. Arthur would take me hostage and locked me up for the rest of my life! I would die in a basement! My mum was standing by the door looking concerned about the fact that I actually knew an older man. This was it, my life was about to end! I peeped round the corner of the door, my body tense with fear and worry. I was solid making me an easy target for…James?

"Hi James." I greeted confused. James never left the castle unless there was a specific event on in town or Kyle had used up all of the mayo, "What are you doing here?"

My mum was standing behind the door obviously listening in to my conversation and making sure that this man wasn't a stalker.

"It's Kyle's guardian." I informed her, and James of her presence, hoping that she would leave and we could talk about more life threatening matters. She clearly got the message that he wasn't going to take me and walked off into the living room, "Why are you here?"

"I need you to come to the control room." James ordered with no expression or clue to why he wanted me there. I nodded and grabbed my blue Nike trainers and tried to put them on. Unfortunately, it was one of those days where my foot would not go into my trainer and in return it killed my fingers. I looked up apologetic at James, who was standing there impatiently with his foot tapping against the stone step leading up to my front door. I somehow slipped on foot into my trainers and tied them up.

"It's a good thing I brought the car." James commented as I slipped my second trainer on and stood up and grabbed my jacket of the banister.

"Mum, I'm going out. Bye." I shouted and slammed the door shut before she could reply or have a say. I turned around after a shut the door and froze in shock because parked outside my house was a black Ferrari. I raised my eyebrows in a questioning way and walked towards the passage seat as James jumped in the driver's seat and no joke, put his sunglasses. All he needed was a suitcase to give off the full impression of a successful business man.

I imagine we broke all the speed limits as we raced through town and up the steep hill to the castle but no one dared to stop us. James was on a mission and he wasn't stopping for anyone. When he opened the castle doors, he immediately walked through the hallway and pulled open the control room door with such force that I could hear it from the car where I still was trying to undo my seatbelt. Finally I walked into the castle, not running as I really should have been but James had failed to inform me of the situation so it wasn't my fault entirely, and carefully climbed down the stairs to the control room. I always hated those stairs. They were made of stone, different shapes and it was dark so a neck injury was highly probable.

"Amy!" James shouted annoyed, clearly he had grown impatient of having to wait for me. I sped up only slightly and ran up to the computer which had scanner mode on. James was tapping his foot against the hard floor with his arms crossed glaring at the computer. Clearly patience's wasn't his virtue today. I jumped when he spoke to me, "You would have thought that the Dino powers would have given this computer more speed."

Not knowing how to reply, I simply nodded my head and turned back to the computer screen which had just finished scanning. The green circle had zoomed in on the warehouse which I was only at yesterday. I then realised that none of my team mates were down here or had joined me in this mission. Disappointed that I should have and worried about their wellbeing, I turned to James. He had all the answers…sometimes.

"Where is Kyle?" I asked, he should definitely be here and I felt slightly scared for him as he was the leader after all and I would have thought Arthur would have more sense to kidnap the team rather than the leader. Also it was mostly Kyle doing the saving. He would do anything for us and I would do anything for him…them. Them. We are a team remember that Amy.

"He along with the others have been taken by Arthur I presume. I hadn't seen him all day. I generally thought that he was just sleeping and having a lazy day until I decided enough was enough, I was going to get that boy out of bed and he was going to do some training so I stormed up there to get him moving when I discovered that his bed was empty and a note was lying there saying round two, which may I add clearly pointed to Arthur unless Kyle had some sort of archery tournament that he hadn't told anyone about. Anyway, I immediately went to all of your houses but the other parents claimed that they were here with me until I went to your house.

"So it's my turn first then." I replied looking back at the screen at where Kyle and my team mates were.

"I guess and something tells me that it's not going to be a simple fight and retrieve."

"I guess I better get going." I stated as I walked away from the computer and over to the desk. I had secretly hoped that James had some sort of weapons for me to use but I was out of luck. I would have to use her karate skills. Of course I then remembered what I had to shout in order to change into my defender outfit. I cringed slightly as I shouted, "Neon Gems! Unlock the colour!"

" **Neon Blue!"**

I could sense that James had his arm covering his eyes as the room as filled with a neon light blue flash. I was ready… sort of. Wishing I still had dino speed I ran up the stairs carefully and out of the castle and into the town. I guess the good thing about fighting evil robots was that I now knew where everything was.

~Ooooo~

The warehouse loomed over me. It's dark, pealing painting fell like a feather onto the ground and lay next to my foot. I looked at it for a second before looking back at the warehouse. I hadn't registered its appearance yesterday. There was no time to. My arms were dangling aimlessly by my side. I gently sighed and thought by to my predecessor. She would have kicked the door open and walked through this warehouse kicking and attacking everything in her sight. Or was that more Annaka's style? It didn't matter they would have gotten the job down by now anyway and everyone would be back at the castle having dinner or whatever they did.

Cautiously, I opened the door and heard the ear hurling screech. Biting my lip, I hoped that the Blinders or Arthur were too far away to hear it. I could just imagine James sighing with his head in his hand muttering to himself about warning the enemy. I waited for a second to see if there was any running or movement coming from the warehouse. Silence. I carried on walking and hoped that I wasn't walking into a trap but knowing my luck and Arthur I probably was.

The room was deserted and still trashed from yesterday which made sense as no one would be here to clean it up. I stepped over broken pieces of plant pots and slide in-between tables making my way to the door at the end of the room. I assumed that they would be in there; all chained up like the other defenders were yesterday. It only made sense and would be a good use of resources.

Suddenly at least twenty Blinders jumped down from the ceiling and blocked my way causing me to stop abruptly. What was it with Arthur and the number twenty? Scanning my brain to think of any symbolic reference, I stared blankly at them and they waited for me to attack first. That's how it's always been. The robots would stand there blankly and we defenders would have to make the first move. Realising that there would probably not be any symbolic or significant reference, I walked towards the Blinders. After all I had my friends to save and hopefully they weren't going to be going anywhere well at least without me. I edged closer and closer to the Blinders. I then discovered that Unlike the Robosaurs, the Blinders only attacked if we kicked or punched them back, other than that they were stationary so I walked closer and closer to them hoping that I could just walk past them. I was sliding through them when it turned out that luck wasn't on my side and the Blinder to my right grabbed my arm and swung me backwards into the floor. Knowing that there was no other way of getting past, I changed my tactic and ran towards them then attempting to do a high jump. I wouldn't have said it was particularly high but the Blinder fell backwards against one of the tables. The others all came at me. My eyes widened at the concept of having to fight nineteen Blinders on my own. I was so caught up in that concept that I failed to notice the grey metal fist of a Blinder coming at me and knocking me onto the ground. Once down there, I couldn't get back up so had to roll away from any kicks and block any form of attack by using my legs.

This lasted five minutes before my legs started aching and getting weak and using this information one of the Blinders kicked me against the wall causing me to power down.

I heard footsteps approaching and saw Arthur make his entrance. His face had his signature grin plastered all over it. Slowly I stood up and tried to fight the Blunders without my Neon gem. I knew that I was loose in my jean pocket but I stupidly ignored it and tried to kick the nearest Blinder away from me. In this attempt my Neon flew out of my pocket and landed against the wall and I was thrown backwards against the opposite wall from it.

"Oh come on Amy!" Arthur shouted at me from the side of the room, "You're being too slow. You're never save your team."

I slowly I placed my hands in front of my head and leant on them. As I did, I pushed my feet up and gently placed my knees onto the floor so it looked like I was about to start crawling. From there on I pushed up again and felt myself wobble and I stood on my two aching feet. I stood there for a second. My blonde hair in a mess and all tangled up. I could see my blue bow dangling down from the side of my head. My white and blue heart t-shirt was ripped and had holes in from where those rips had expanded and my jeans were filthy with dirt. The Blinders had me surrounded and I couldn't advance towards my team. My neon gem was somewhere in the room, I had felt it fly out of my head as I was dropped to the ground.

"You're useless Amy." Arthur taunted smirking his scarred face off. Hopefully, I was keeping a straight face so he couldn't see his words haunt me and twist a knife from my heart. The room was darkish and from his angle hopefully he couldn't see my face at all, "You're not made to be a defender. Zsa-Zsa would be disappointed."

The straight face was getting harder to keep up. I just wanted to burst into tears at the precise moment, curl up into a little ball and rock backwards and forwards until everyone had left me alone and had gone home but I couldn't break down now. I had come too far and wasn't going to give up now. Arthur was not going to get the satisfaction of winning, not while I was still standing. I thought back to all of the videos I had watched of Zsa-Zsa fighting. Never once had she broken down into tears when she was alone. When her team mates were in trouble she was quick on her feet and found a solution.

The Blinders were still surrounding me, waiting for their masters orders, who was still smirking. Then I started to smile. At first it was only slightly but after a second, it become wider and stretched out across my face until it became a massive grin. I could see from the corner of my eye that Arthur was confused. He was confused because he was wrong. I am made to be a defender. I may not be the same as Zsa-Zsa. I may not be as useful as her but I was still useful to my team. I was the compassionate one and I always stopped my team from going too far and exceeding their limits. Right now my team needs me to stop them from doing that because knowing them, their probably swinging off the chains trying to break them and their wrists in the process. My team were not going to leave me or ditch me because I wasn't as useful as them. They needed me just like I needed them. With this realisation dawning on me and used up all the strength I had left in my legs and ran towards my Neon gem. Of course it was easier said than done. I ducked constantly under every swinging punch and dodged every kick that was heading towards me. Arthur didn't look impressed. In fact when I made it over to the opposite wall and I picked up my Neon gem, he was furious and screaming at the Blinders to get me. I ran like the wind not caring that I hadn't changed into my defenders uniform yet. I had a clear passage way to the door and I was going to take it.

I pushed the door open creating a loud bang as it crashed against the cold brick wall and I ran down the stairs not fearing or caring if I fall down them head first and injury myself in the process. My legs were killing me and I knew that I was running on pure adrenaline and that as soon as my team were safe I would definitely collapse. Hopefully the Blinders would have gone by then.

I jumped off the bottom step and pulled back the cell door in a similar motion to what Arthur did two days ago. There, lying asleep, were my four team mates, I shocked to say the least. I thought that Arthur would have chained them to the wall and covered their mouths with tape or a hanky but no they were all curled up, breathing deeply. Speaking of breathing… I'd noticed that mine had become deep and desperate like I was craving it whilst running short of it and like I predicted I collapsed against and slid down the wall until my legs came into slow contact with the ground. I stayed there for a few moments recollected my thoughts and feeling in my legs and watched as Kyle started to stir and slowly flutter his eye lids open. I gave a smile of relief.

"Huh." He stated looking around the room confused whilst blinking. Slowly, he placed his arms on the floor and stood up. He stumbled slightly as he tried to regain his balance, "Where am I?"

"In the warehouse cell." I informed him bluntly as he then slightly jumped as I spoke, "Arthur kidnapped you all."

Kyle nodded and walked over to me, holding out his hands as he did. I reached out to them wondering what he was doing and found myself being pulled up back onto my feet. My legs were still like jelly and I knew that I was about to face plant the floor. Luckily, Kyle held me up and placed his arms around my shoulder and waist taking half of my weight. For some odd reason, I got this sensation in my stomach.

"Come on guys. Wake up." He shouted. The others started to stir too and I watched again at the confused expressions on their faces that turned into worry and panic. I now realise that from their point of view and how Kyle was holding me that it looked like I had been badly injured.

"Are you two alright?" Zoey asked jogging over to us and hugging me the best that she could.

"We're fine." Kyle replied as Josh and Drake made their way over.

"I don't remember falling asleep down here." Drake commented making me laugh.

"Arthur kidnapped you." I told him briefly then I remembered that he was upstairs. I guess that Josh saw the look of remembrance on my face.

"I'll get a head start." He said running up the stairs followed by Drake and Zoey. I could hear their heavier footsteps become lighter.

Slowly Kyle realised his arm from my waist and I found myself actually holding my own weight. I thanked him but my cheeks were red with embarrassment. I couldn't even take on a few Blinders without being hurt. I looked back at Kyle again and he was smiling proudly at me. I looked intrigued so he explained.

"Did you know that the colour blue symbolises two things?" Kyle asked me as we both started walking back up the stairs. He was still shaking his wrists trying to get rid of the pain that had been caused by lying in a curled up position for too long. I continued to look at him slightly confused about the topic, "Blue means authority which symbolises Zsa-Zsa very well but it also symbolises the heavens which I think symbolises you very well. There a place of peace and tranquillity and care which are all traits that you have. So, I think that you are a great blue defender and if Zsa-Zsa were here she would agree."

I smiled at Kyle showing me appreciation at the information. It definitely made me feel better and more a part of the team and I was amazed at how Kyle was the one who was kidnapped today and would need support but he was the one giving it to me and I wasn't even injured… that much. I noticed that they were nearing her road so we pace slowed down not wanting to miss it while in deep conversation, "So I guess this means that there's four more rounds left."

"Yep." Kyle replied, "And something tells me that they're going to get harder.


	3. Round Three

**A/N: I am so sorry for the long update. I actually finished this chapter three weeks ago but my laptop broke and I literally only got it back today. I have already started to write the the next chapter, don't give up on me!**

I swiped my finger across the iPad screen, my finger sweeping into the thin air and lingering for a second as I waited for the video to load. The buffering circle held centre stage in the screen, grabbing its thirty seconds of glory before being replaced by a picture of JCD black with an oversized play button in the centre. I pressed down gently and the video started playing for the third time in an hour. James had said that I needed to do more training but he didn't say that it had to be physical so watching these was training to a degree.

I watched how my predecessor back flipped and destroyed the pair of robots surrounding him just by doing one kick. Man, Jack Tonelli was an awesome defender and by the way Kyle talks about him, an awesome leader too. Good thing that I only have to live up to one of them. However both James and Kyle has been adamant that we not here to replace the Jr defenders. Well...we are but not in personality. Kyle has already informed me that if my personality was to replace anyone it would be Danny. Apparently, we both like messing around and don't take anything seriously. I found that last comment very hurtful. I do take some things seriously, just not all of them over wise I would be like...Jack. Harsh comparison I know. It's just from the footage of him fighting, he seems to take everything seriously and doesn't to have any fun. Of course I would never tell Kyle any of these thoughts as he would definitely try to kill me and kick me off the team for disrespecting a very close friend of his but I don't see why he would. To put this bluntly, the chances are that he died in that lab collapse along with the other three so if I were to blurt this out to Kyle, Jack would never find out anyway.

That's another difference I have with the previous Black and Red defender, he had full respect for anyone who deserved it. According to every adult around, I don't respect anyone. Well that's the phrase that gets shouted around school and occasionally by James. I don't think the others mind about the fact that I can be disrespectful. Every time it happens, Amy rolls her eyes, Josh and Zoey smirk at me and Kyle just raises his left eyebrow. I've tried raising my eyebrows but I can't do it. When I do try both of them rise up towards my forehead so I asked Kyle once how to do it and what the tricks was. He just stated that he came with the living with Danny Peck package. Another thing I have in common with the previous green defender.

I asked James why I wasn't chosen to be the green defender as I clearly suited the personality and why Josh wasn't chosen to be red defender. He smirked slightly raising the right side of his mouth and replied,

"We've already had a green defender whose initial began with D and a red defender whose initial began with J. I wanted to spice it up a bit."

I wasn't sure if I was meant to laugh so I didn't. Kyle was in training room at the time as well, moving over the bean bags and rearranging everything we had messed up. From the corner of my eye, I knew that he had glanced over but I couldn't tell whether he held a look of interest or amusement. I never asked him afterwards due to the fear of looking like an idiot. If there was one thing Drake Jones didn't do it was look like an idiot.

I have a reputation to uphold.

"Drake! Have you been listening to a word that I've said?" Kyle shouted bringing me out of my thoughts and back into reality. I tried my hardest not to look confused. How long had Kyle been here talking to me? I thought I was in the kitchen alone. I continued looking at Kyle, who kindly repeated what he had just said,

"Have you done any training today or have you been watching funny cat videos on YouTube again..."

If he was annoyed he didn't show it, that's what everyone feared about Kyle, you would never know what he was truly feeling until it was too late.

"...I swear those videos date back to 2008 or something. There old and ancient. I don't know why you watch them."

"Because they're hilarious to watch and never get old and anyway I wasn't watching cat videos I was actually doing some training." I replied proudly to a doubting Kyle, "Look."

I showed him the paused video which Kyle rewinds and started play, of Jack fighting and watched as his eye brows raised in surprise. We could now talk openly and ask any questions about the Jr defenders and the first two sets of powers without upsetting Kyle or making him kick off and rant. I guess that it's a good sign that he's moved on hopefully. Again, no one actually knew what Kyle was feeling so he could be easily hiding any resentment towards James and us for replacing him and we wouldn't know a thing and frankly that thought scared me.

"You do realise you would actually need to do some physic fighting in order to do that move." Kyle stated referring to the high kick followed by the splits which in total had taken out three of the robots.

"Obviously." I replied, "It's just I'm so busy with social events that I don't have time."

"Oh yeah, you and your school image." Kyle muttered under his breath quietly that I wondered if it was actually meant for my ears.

I chose to ignore what he said anyway in case it was and continued boasting about my social life,

"When you're as popular as me Kyle, you have to make sacrifices. Let people down and chose who is more important which reminds me, you know Sam Parker..."

"Who doesn't?" Kyle said. Sam Parker was the most popular kid in our school...he might as well be a celebrity. Everyone (including the teachers) loved him. Being recognised and talked to by him was the ultimate goal in our school follows by being his friend. His parents were filthy rich and would by him and his closest friends anything they'd want with no limits.

"Anyway, I've been invited to meet up with him and catch up meaning that..."

"You won't be here for team training." Kyle finished off clearly he knew where I was going with this, "again."

"Knew you'd understand." I said smiling my face off oblivious to the fact that he didn't understand.

I now realise that Kyle and I had very different upbringings. My leader was brought up to think about others and work as a team and fight for what's good and honour where as I was brought up fighting over attention and learning that people and knowledge is power. I once made the mistake of announcing the Jones family motto to the team during one of our evening sessions. To my surprise, everyone disagreed and started giving their own source that of power.

Amy said "Love"

Josh said "Money"

Zoey said "status"

Kyle said "strength"

I briefly acknowledged them but continued to believe in my motto because what is power without Knowledge of it and how to use it with people and in my case against them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a power hungry manic who wants to earn billions but my dad is. Okay, he doesn't earn billions nor millions but he is a power hungry man who wants to be top of his work firm. He worked hard at school, came home with As and A*s and went to Harvard in America to do a degree in business. My popular older brother seems to be following in his footsteps so you can imagine the disappointment when I come home bringing Cs and if I'm lucky one or two Bs. I think that's why he hammers the motto into me. He thinks that somehow it would magically make me work harder and get the top grades. My mother doesn't complain about my grades, she barely brought a B home in her life, she hates being hypocritical, however she doesn't stop my dad digging at me about them so deep down I think she would be happier if I followed in my brothers footsteps.

I returned to reality, the iPad still in my hands but Kyle no longer in sight. I give a confused frown, I didn't have any recollection of Kyle leaving the room. How long had I been lost in my thoughts?

I looked at the clock hanging up against the purple kitchen wall and realised that I had been standing there for fifteen minutes reflecting. I hope Kyle wasn't trying to talk to me. I could just imagine him talking and trying to click his fingers in my face but more importantly I had to be meeting Harry in five. We had agreed that we would meet at the smoothie place. I smile, that was the first place where I had met Kyle.

Ignoring the feeling that I was betraying the yellow neon defender by meeting Sam there, I left the castle without a single goodbye knowing that James would try to lecture me about team work and responsibility.

After literally running to the smoothie place and discovering that Sam wasn't there yet, I slumped down into the nearest free chair and waited. A waiter came round and took my order of a Berry Smoothie; I spotted my brother talking amongst his friends. By the way his hands were flying around the place and pointing randomly at people in his circle, he was bragging about something at school. Did I mention that he was Captain of every single sports team going at Pearl Canyon High? The moments of his hands were now representing a basketball match that had just happened recently. I adverted my eyes to the coloured menu written in chalk above the smoothie bar

"Drakey!" A male voice shouted, I automatically knew who it was and didn't dare look round. However they were persistent in embarrassing me, "Drakey! Don't ignore me! I know you can hear me!"

"Drakey!" Three more voices shouted joining in making it unbearable so I looked in the direction of my brother, who was grinning away. He indicated that I should come over and talk to him. Silently groaning in the processing, I pushed my chair back causing it make a high pitched squeal along the laminated floor and walked over to my big brother. I leant on the table placing both hand on it.

"What?" I asked not caring if I sounded rude.

"What are you doing out here alone? You know mum doesn't like you out in town alone." My brother states while smirking but before I could answer, one of his friends joined in,

"Yeah, don't you have homework to finish?"

My brother and his friends burst out laughing at this comment. I should explain why this is so funny. Basically, Pearl Canyon has this weird education system. They follow the link American system where we get finals etc. but in Pearl Canyon, we have shorter days at middle school due to the amount of material we have to learn for the finals so we get more homework. When you get to high school, you get less homework but longer days and right now I have like seven pieces of homework which need finishes and this morning I announced my disgust at this to my mum, however it seemed that my brother had been listening.

Anyway, I decided to ignore the comment and looked annoyed at my brother.

"Was there anything important who wanted me for?" I asked.

"Not really, just wondering why you're alone in the smoothie place." My brother asked. I had no idea whether it was out of interest or whether it was to see if I was a loner or not but, luckily for me, Sam arrived.

"Hey Drake." He greeted shouting over to me.

I left my brother and walked back over to the table and I was at before and found my smoothie waiting for me. Sam sat down and immediately ordered a kiwi and lime one along with a chicken sandwich.

"So how are you?" I asked starting the conversation after a minutes silence.

"I'm good. How are you?" Sam replied and asked. This conversation was already going nowhere. I knew that deep down, very deep down that I wished I was training with the others.

"In good, so what did you want to talk about?" I asked, there must have been a reason Sam wanted to talk to me. The popular kids didn't just ask anyone out for a catch up.

"I've been watching you Drake, at school. I've been making mental notes and watching who you've been hanging out with."

"Okay..."

"I have to say, for someone whose brother is the most popular kid in the whole of Pearl Canyon, (I could just hear James and Kyle laughing at that comment), you do hang out with a bunch of weirdos."

"Huh?"

"Well, there's Josh. He's okay I guess and good at football I must admit but he doesn't use his status to his full potential and that's weird. Imagine what he could do with a rep like his. He could almost be as popular as me then there's Zoey. She's a good gymnast and like Josh doesn't use her status to its full potential or shown off any of her skills in school. Imagine how cool of would be if she back flipped down the corridor instead of walked. She would earn lots of friends. Amy's a weird one too. She's newish to the area so granted I shouldn't know everything about her but one thing I do know about her is that she's kind to everyone. You don't get places at school if your kind to everyone and then there's Kyle. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. Now he is the weirdest. He's very quiet, hardly ever speaks to anyone else apart from you four and he has an unlimited supply of water. Where does he get it from? You should tell him being loud equal popularity. Anyway, the reason I told you that is I've seen something different in you. Your cool and could go places that's why I want you to join my gang and hang out with me. Whatcha say?"

I sat there in silence, shocked at what Sam had just said. He had offered me a place in his gang but bad mouthed my friends and team mates. I remained quiet tying to take it all in. Then to top it all off, Sam continued, "Listen I'm meeting the others at the skate park like now. Come along, it'll give you a taster on what is like to be in the gang."

Sam stood up, smoothie in one hand, sandwich in the other and somehow he dug three fingers into his pocket and chucked eight dollars into the table. I picked up my smoothie and gave three. The tip wouldn't be very high on my account. I followed Sam as we left the smoothie place and headed for Pearl Canyon Park.

The skate park literally in the corner of Pearl Canyon Park. It's out the way of all the little kids so they don't get hurt and parents who want to ignore the laughs and sounds of wheel rolling against concrete. I heard Sam's friend's laughter before I could see them myself. I knew that they were sitting at the top of one of the ramps and as I got closer I'd noticed that there feet were dangling down, swinging against the ramp whilst a can of coke was in one hand.

"Guys!" Sam shouted grabbing their attention like an angry teacher in a classroom of misbehaving kids. There were three of them sitting on the ramps. Their eyes skidded over to me and I could tell that my cheeks were reddening. I knew that they were judging me and silently questioning why I was there but they never asked out loud. No one questioned Sam Parker.

"Drake's here for a little try out session with the gang." Sam explained whilst his friends nodded and started to climb back onto the ramps. I followed swiftly intrigued by the feeling of what it would be like to be in this gang.

Fifteen minutes later, I was sat in the corner, my head propped up against the metal bar of the ramp top. Sam and his friends were sat in a circle laughing their heads off about something someone did at school. I kept looking down at my phone hoping that Kyle or one of the others would text me, telling me that I was needed back at the Castle for training and of course as soon as I mentioned the castle.

"Blinders!" Some shouted from a far. My head shot up like a rabbit caught in the headlights. I jumped down off the ramp. I looked back at Sam, who was already running away with his friends running behind him. I guessed I had to take care of myself then, luckily I could.

I ran against the crowds of people who were heading into Pearl Canyon centre away from the Blinders and further into the park. When I arrived I was shocked to find my team already there but lying on the floor seemingly unconscious. I ran over to Josh, who was nearest to me and fell on my knees bruising them in the process. I automatically started shaking him.

"Josh!" I shouted at him whilst shaking his arm. The only response I got was a groan then…

"Five minutes mum."

I assumed that hopefully it was a potion of some sort and they were just sleeping but other questions were running through my head. How long had they been here? Why wasn't I called? Where was Arthur? One of my questions was answered.

"Welcome to round three Drake." Arthur said, standing beside the Blinders, smirking. That smirk was going to get on my nerves pretty quickly, "As you can see, your friends were…willing test subjects for my new sleep potion."

Well, at least they weren't badly injured just asleep. Knowing Arthur, I bet they didn't even have a chance to change into the neon outfits. Thinking of Neon, I grabbed my gem from inside my jean pocket and pulled it out.

"Neon Gems! Unlock the colour!" I shouted cringing. Why did we persuade Kyle to make that our roll call?

" **Neon Red!"**

The extra bright red flash covered my body as my outfit activated. The Blinders hadn't moved from Arthur's side.

"This could have been prevented Drake." He said with his arms indicating the scene around him, "Your friends could have easily defeated me if you were there with them. Look I even brought less Blinders so it calculated at only two each then…well, who knows…maybe you could have caught me."

This new information swirled around in my brain. I looked over to Zoey and Amy. This was my fault? I had no idea when or if my friends would wake up and I couldn't help but feel guilty. All four of them had been bugging me for weeks to take team training seriously. James had even stated that it is vital that we need to work as a team.

Without hesitating I run towards Arthur spurring the Blinders to come to life and fight me. I ducked as one tried to swipe me out and in retaliation, I kicked it away immediately followed by punching another one. I must have been angry because those two fell to the ground in an instant. Suddenly, I had two fighting and pushing me to the ground, using the power I could mussel, I kicked them away, leapt up and pushed them into the Blinders behind them causing four to fall at once. Six down, four to go.

Using my frustration and anger and Arthur and myself, I jumped high into the air and kicked one of the Blinders in the chest causing it to collapse onto the ground, followed by a roundabout kick to another one. I had adrenaline pumping through my body and I was not going to waste it.

The last two cornered me. I was standing directly behind Zoey and could not step backwards without fear of stepping on her and hurting her so I rushed forwards grabbing both machines with my hands and pushing them to the ground myself. Satisfied when they started malfunctioning, I turned my attention to Arthur.

"Hey!" I shouted at Arthur but he teleported away. How was this fair? Every time we would defeat him, he would retreat and probably make some more Blinders. Staring at where he stood, I looked away and ran towards Kyle who was waking up from the potion. He was moaning as he slowly pushed his upper body up and leant on his elbows. I powered down back to my normal clothes.

"What happened?" He asked confused.

I filled him in with the sleeping potion and how I was left to defeat the Blinders on my own. I didn't mention that I could have really done with the teams work but I think Kyle knew that already, I think everyone knew that before this battle happened. I helped Kyle up as he looked around at the broken pieces of machinery.

"Why didn't you call me?" I blurted out. I'd never meant to ask that question. I wanted him to think that I was cool with the fact that I wasn't needed despite the fact it was far from the truth.

"You were busy with Sam. I didn't want to disturb your important meeting." He replied looking me straight in the eye then asking, "How did it go anyway?"

"It was okay. He's not as cool as he makes out." I replied looking down at my new trainers, I wasn't yet going to tell Kyle about all the stuff he said, I would do that with James in the room and he could take the next course of action. I looked back up and saw Kyle with his eye brows raised.

"Could have told you that ages ago." He stated, "So will we see you much in school."

"Oh, you're not getting rid of me that easily." I said, "Anyway I wasn't cool enough to join the gang."

I don't know why I said that, it just felt right. I guess I didn't want them to know that I would miss them and that I didn't want to leave the friendship group. I was happy with my four weirdos and no one would change that.

~Ooooo~

Looking back on that day, I realised that round three was easy, all I had to do was put my team first and forget about my social image and not to mention that my dad was actually proud of me when I have an altered version of events. Round three seemed so hard, so challenging and I was completely out of my depth then. I was glad that my round was over as such. We'd already figured out that all of us would have a round but I still feel guilty about Arthur. If I had just been there… then this wouldn't have happened.

I look around me. Zoey is sitting 90 degrees away from me, her back straight against the wall and her legs stretched out in front of her. Josh is to me right, he's sitting against, what used to be, Charles's desk in the main room. Amy and Kyle have their backs against the wall; pieces of blue and gold paint are flaking away and falling into their laps. Amy has her head leaning on Kyle's shoulders and he's staring into space. His hair's in. a mess and burnt at the edges of his gentle spikes and I can tell by the way he's hold in arm that it's either broken or he's dislocated his shoulder but the worst thing is that he hasn't said a word in twenty five minutes because I know that he's staring at the devastation. The devastation that round six has caused.

 **A/n: Another Chapter done for you and I know what you're thinking… but Akl, this was all character background and hardly any fighting; I thought fighting the bad guys was what these stories were about. I've decided that Neon would be my filler story based around my five characters. Let's just say it's the calm before the storm that I have planned ;-).**


	4. Round Four

**A/N: Thanks for staying with me, I know the updates are long but I have a lot to write in these chapters, also I probably should have said this from the start, all of the chapters are reflection chapters leading up to Chapter 6. It will all make sense, I promise.**

I kicked the ball subconsciously into the net as I sighed. I looked up and discovered that it had gone in but not where I had aimed it to go. I wanted it to go into the left corner but instead it was standing there watching me in the centre of the football net. I sighed again and I walked over to the next football lined up. I kicked that one in but again my aim was off and this one went to the centre as well. I was so glad that my coach wasn't here to witness it but to be fair to myself my mind was elsewhere. It had been mostly focused on Arthur Song and about how little I know of him. Sure I don't know much about Ivar, Neri and Harvey but I know the basics, that they're lunatics who want revenge but, that's not Arthur's motivation. The defenders, as far as I know, never did anything to him. He was the one who kidnapped them, the original defenders I mean, not Kyle's friends although come to think of it, from what I read he did kidnap those four as well. Yep, that man has a past.

"Josh!" A low male voice shouted startling me and causing me to kick the ball at the frame and rebounding onto my chest. That was going to bruise.

"Yes coach?" I asked placing my arm around my stomach hoping that somehow it would ease the pain away. Coach was staring at me with a fed up expression on his face. I already knew where this conversation was going before it had even begun but it's not my fault. I can't save Pearl Canyon and go to football practice at the same time which means that if I don't focus on my football more I'll be out of the team.

After hearing this from my coach's mouth, I nodded acknowledging this and packed up my kit. I say packed, I kicked the footballs over to the wall of the games shed in the school field and zipped up my back with my clothes in. It looked like I was going to have to change later plus I was slightly mudded despite only kicking a ball into the net. Wet fields suck. I picked up my sports bag and glanced at my watch. 4:12. Oops, I was late for training with James, again. Seriously, I doubted whether any of it would actually come in handy for these 'rounds'. So far, they'd been about fighting Blinders, yes these robots were harder to fight than before but still all I did was kick and punch them. Secretly, I's always wanted to jump off building while roley polying in the air then kick the robot from behind into the wall and also actually defend myself, ducking had been becoming an issue.

Sighing to myself, I started to walk off the school field, I needed to get back to the castle, and after all I was meant to be cooking that night. Yes, Josh Wilkinson was actually going to attempt to cook that night. Of course, it was all James's idea; he was the one that suggested, as we're sleeping over so much, that we all start cooking. Apparently, it's a great life skill and one that my aunt doesn't exceed well in. She always home cooks and it always tastes horrible. I can't remember how my mum's cooking tasted; I haven't seen her in a while though I did get a postcard the other day saying that she would be back in August so not long.

"Josh!" I heard a female voice shout my name. I recognised that voice instantly but I couldn't believe it. I thought that she was meant to be in California but no I turned around and saw her, with her group of colleagues dressed in uniform.

"Hey Faetal." I greeted dropping my gym back to the floor as they walked over, Vane immediately picked it up knowing that it would be heavy and us, along with the other eight defenders started walking back to the castle.

"What are you all doing back?" I asked still in shock.

"We haven't got a conference for another week my dear." Knightriss replied to me, "So we decided to see Kyle as we have no idea where this boarding school actually is."

"Fair enough, Kyle will be pleased to see you all."

"Kyle's always pleased to see me John." Gildar replied swishing his hair to the left and looking in his red mirror. If it wasn't for Ballista he wouldn't have definitely walked into that lamp post.

"It's Josh and I'm not entirely sure that's true." I muttered under my breath trying to be as quiet as possible although I was pretty sure that Faetal and Thorne heard me regardless. I had been warned about Gildar's… mistaken identities when we were going through funny stories one night at a sleep over. He pointed out to us that Gildar would always call his dad Dwaine. Kyle recons it's one of his old tricks that he would use for attention and hasn't grown out of the habit yet.

"Have you had any contact with the other Jr defenders?" Vane asked me on the spot.

Hopefully my eyes didn't widen with despair as my brain froze for an answer, "Yeah, I've seen one or two. They seem fine."

"What have they been up to?" Shaiden asked me much to my horror. Why do parents always ask about their children?

"Umm, not really looked at the emails from them, all I got was lessons, fun, Danny being a pain, Annaka and hair, science, boredom etc."

"What were they expecting?" Thorne asked, whether it was to himself or me and the other defenders, I will never know. Frankly, I could have come back with a really sarcastic answer of a change but seeing as Thorne was permanently in a bad mood, I didn't want to risk being thrown in the dungeons.

~Ooooo~

As you can imagine, Kyle leapt into his parents arms and greeted the other Jr defenders but to my surprise the conversation immediately turned to Arthur. However, with me not actually being in the room and in reality my ear was against the wooden door between the hallway and the main room, I couldn't hear that well. That was until, Zoey, Drake and Amy came along and Drake sneakily opened the door allowing the soundwaves to travel clearly to our ears.

"So who is he?" I heard Kyle ask again to my surprise, I just assumed that Kyle knew who Arthur was. It didn't ever occur to me that this one another villain who Kyle had no connection with the first being Harvey of course. I turned to round to see my three friends and witnessed the shocked look on their face as well; clearly we all had the assumption. I didn't know why, but it made me feel a little guilty, it was like we were fighting a man who was innocent until proven guilty and he hadn't been proven guilty yet but luckily the next few detail but my guilty conscious at rest.

"He's a madman." Skabb announced bluntly.

"There's more to it than that." Ballista said then sighed dramatically, I could tell that this was already going to be a story worth hearing, "He kidnapped us then sent his men to kidnap the other Jr defenders and Charles. Somehow, Annaka and Danny weren't caught up in it all so they only got the others and locked them up immediately."

"Roughly, 20 minutes later Annaka and Danny turn up and free Zsa-Zsa, Jack and Kyle. Arthur, who is angry at all this decides to unleash the Lionheart Force-" Shaiden continued before being interrupted by Kyle.

"The Lionheart Force! Arthur was responsible for that?"

"Indeed he was." Crocness continued, "And to make matter worse, he struck a deal with it meaning that it was ten times harder to get the Jr defenders back to their normal selves."

"Obviously you did." Kyle stated.

"Obviously!" Kook exclaimed, "But seriously he is a trouble maker, even worse than Danny and I put together."

"And that is trouble." Gildar finished off.

I pulled away from the door deciding that I had heard all I needed to know. I had the basic facts, Arthur Song was worst the Harvey Lewis and probably that Astrid witch put together but I gathered that he prefers working alone which is always a bonus when fighting an evil mastermind. The others were still listening in but I could tell from their facial expressions that the exciting background conversation had departed and now the general conversation had arrived.

"So, we should be able to defeat him then?" Amy asked after pulling away from the door as well. Seeing as our leader wasn't with us, she wasn't directing the question at anyone.

"I don't know, I mean the Jr defenders have mutant powers and yet he got away." Drake answered.

"But they didn't have the defenders gems." Zoey stated, "Maybe their story could have been different."

"Maybe." I added as I felt like I needed to contribute something to this conversation, "But we haven't even fought him face to face, he keeps setting up these rounds and getting Blinders to do the fighting for him."

"Maybe it's fear." Amy muttered loud enough for us to hear and then spoke louder, "Maybe the Jr defenders came so close to defeating him that he decided to build the Blinders to fight instead of himself and the rounds are delaying the process of us having the fight him."

I along with Zoey and Drake stayed silent considering the possibility that Amy might be on to something. Maybe Arthur was just a paranoid man and the good news was that we could easily add to his paranoia. Looking back on it now, I wish that we'd just left Arthur alone and just fought his stupid Blinders but as James always said, 'We fight first and reflect later'. The only reassuring part of that fact was the Jr defenders used to do it a well. I looked up at the others and I knew instantly that we all had the same idea, we were going to take down Arthur here and now, which meant looking for him.

So, we quietly left the castle without Kyle and the rest of the defenders and went into Pearl Canyon looking for Arthur. Of course we knew that it wasn't going to be easy although that man did have a habit of popping out in front of us

Of course it is wise that when trying to locate an evil mastermind in the town of Pearl Canyon, is that they always end up hiding in the deserted part of it. Arthur had a strange connection to the abandoned warehouse and frankly that freaked me out, well I think it was more down to the hidden chamber with the chains than the concept that Arthur once loved to garden. Also I must add that walking around Pearl Canyon is actually as short trip. There's not actually that much here, it's more of an isolated town which I guess is the best location to put a Castle where everyone is trying to steal the crown but then again why would you want to be ruler of Pearl Canyon, there's only s shopping mall, a few industrial sites, a park, a town centre with a few cafes, shops and restaurants, around 20 rows of houses either side of the town centre and of course there is room for a primary, elementary and high school.

Anyway, we walked through the town centre and passed the smoothie place which was busy as always. I still chuckle at the thought that Kyle met both Drake and Amy in there because my predecessor made a sarcastic comment at Drake's older brother. So we continued walking towards the shopping mall and the famous warehouse of doom then suddenly, who of all people should step out in front of us but Harvey Lewis. Frankly, I had no idea that he was still around, I thought the Ivar would have locked him up for running away. Then again, Arthur didn't seem that infiltrated with Ivar than Harvey was and going on the basic understanding of how the criminal mind works, I doubted that Ivar had any idea that Harvey was working for Arthur.

"Hello my dear enemies, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Harvey said in a hysterical voice which made him sound even loopier and freakier than before.

"It's been a week since you ran off." Drake shouted back. I knew I could rely on Drake to give some sort of come back to his remarks. I personally was never any good at them.

"Still a long time since I tormented you." Harvey replied with that signature smirk of his face, "Now I imagined that the girls amongst you have already realised that I don't have any Blinders by me. That's the nice thing about this group of defenders, the girls are the smartest. With the others it was always a guessing game, which one of the Jr defenders would realise the trick first."

"I didn't realise you came here to complement us." Zoey shot back without missing a beat.

"I'm not, that was an added extra. I don't want anything; you're no longer my concern, not really. I have no plan of attack that you can ruin; I have no ultimate master to disobey..."

"Then why are you here?" Amy asked.

"Because I have information but unfortunately, there not for your ears, its Kyle's ears I want. You see information is a vital thing but also a mysterious aspect of life. Information can both run the universe but also destroy it. The more information you know, the more likely you are at destroying the universe." Harvey explained.

"Nice analogy there." I said, I didn't care for it and that's probably why I don't know the relevance.

"Why thank you very much and seeing as Kyle isn't here, I think I'll go now." Harvey said turning around and walking off.

"Hey!" Drake shouted, "You don't get to decide when you leave. We do!"

"Whatever." He shouted back still walking off.

Drake stepped forward to go after him but I pulled him back. There was no point. My biology teacher always said that if there was an infection spreading, you needed to defeat the source and the bacteria would die off and right not Arthur was the source and Harvey was the bacteria.

Heading towards the Warehouse had become a memorised route. We knew exactly which left to take and even which road would lead us to a short cut. Kind of sad isn't it? It was hard to believe that after we left that warehouse for the first time, we actually got lost and it took nearly an hour to get back to the castle.

The four of us stopped outside the Warehouse. I sucked in as much air as possible and held it for ten seconds as if it would calm me down. I didn't know what I was expecting. Blinders? Ivar? Any other crazy machinery? It turned out that it was none of the above. I opened the door seeing as the others were too worried to open it and peeped through. After see virtually nothing due to the darkness, I opened the door further and stepped in. I could tell that Amy was following me in.

After two steps, the lights automatically turned on. I located the light switch and to my surprise saw a girl standing next to it. She had bright blue eyes, her clothes were torn and looked very dirty but the most peculiar thing about her was the fact that she had bright green hair…almost Emerald.

"Well, this is a surprise." Arthur said, his voice booming through the room, "I wasn't expecting to see you today."

"Neither were we." I replied back seeing as in the last two minutes I had become the leader of our little gang. My eyes glanced over to the mysterious girl.

"Ah, you haven't met Emerald have you?" Arthur asked summoning her over to him, "She has a history with the Jr defenders."

"Speaking of which, where are the little brats?" She asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Zoey snapped back at her.

"Pipe down ladies." Arthur ordered as he walked closer to us, "It's not worth fighting over."

Both Zoey and Emerald stopped shouting to my surprise. Personally, I would have thought that Zoey wouldn't stop just because it was Arthur who told her to. She must be slacking. Drake stepped forward and was one foot in front of Arthur. Guessing at what Drake was about to do, I slowly walked to the side of Arthur, who was in eye contact with Drake, anticipating his next move. I kept walking until I was directly behind him; Emerald had her eyes on Amy and Zoey. Drake switched his eye contact to me.

"Now!" He shouted.

Now, to say I panicked may be an understatement as my next words were, "Neon gems- unleash the colour!"

" **Neon Green!"**

After the green flash disappeared allowing me to see, I was surprised and confused at the fact that none of my other team mates had actually activated there neon gems. Amy and Zoey were trying to fight Emerald, who was blocking and attacking both Zoey and Amy by kicking them. The girls were trying their hardest to fight back but there skill just didn't match hers. Somehow, two Blinders had appeared and were fighting Drake, who was keeping his own by punching away but then misjudged his kick which was caught by one of the Blinders and ended up with him being grabbed. I, myself, was about to run to help them my wrist was grabbed and I spun round to face Arthur.

"Violence doesn't solve anything you know."

"Bit rich coming from you." I snapped back.

Suddenly, the warehouse doors flung open and revealing Harvey along with Ivar and oh boy was it all about to go down. This fragment of my life will always be remembered.

"Arthur Song!" Ivar boomed walking towards me and Arthur. This, of course, gave me an unsettling feeling in my stomach, "I have reason to believe that you have been going easy on these kids."

"Easy! I have been going anything but easy!" Arthur argued back, which was true, these Blinders were hard to defeat, "I have created tougher machines which you will never achieve and I have four out of five defenders here caught."

"Though Harvey here as told me it was through trickery." Ivar replied, "Not through fighting."

I looked up at Arthur for his reply see as escape was virtually impossible, he had tight grip on my wrist.

"Does it matter, I have them and no doubt that Kyle is already on his way." Arthur replied.

"I thought you fought with courage not cowardness."

I really wanted to laugh at this point but I figured that it wouldn't really go down well with what was happening.

"Well at least I'm personally doing something, unlike you. What have you actually done in order to stop the defenders?" Arthur asked back.

"You have no idea." Ivar replied before deciding that the argument was over, "You know what, do what you want."

Arthur paused for a second before turning his attention back to me, "Well it looks like it's just you and me."

"At least your stupid rounds have finished!" I exclaimed with my teeth bearing together in pain due to the fact that one Blinder was holding my arm out behind me and I had my other arm protecting myself from Arthur's wrath.

"I wouldn't be so sure. Round Four, temptation." He muttered and then it all clicked in. This had been one big massive trick- us finding him in the warehouse without any Blinders by his side (minus the two who have Drake) and then us easily beating him. He had us wrapped round his little finger all of this time. The round was the temptation of finding him and defeating him there and then. No wonder he had Emerald with him. She effectively was his back-up if the situation got out of hand.

After the realisation of Arthur's trick sunk in I turned my head and located Kyle in the corner of the room, the defenders nowhere to be seen. Harvey walked over to him but didn't attack. Despite this Kyle was still alert, he may not have his neon gem but he could fight. Harvey bent down to Kyle's height and whispered something into his ear. I watched as Kyle's eyes widened with shock and his hands started shaking. Harvey pulled back and to my annoyance I couldn't see if that grin was on his face or not. Kyle stood their solid as Harvey walked away out of the warehouse and towards Ivar. The pair teleported away leaving Arthur and Emerald behind which wasn't a surprise to be honest.

"Kyle!" I shouted hoping that it would bring him out of his trance. Fortunately it did and Kyle looked up, his eyes filled with shock.

"Arthur, we're going." Kyle shouted and on that command Arthur realised me and I feel to the ground in a lump. Emerald dropped Zoey and Amy to the ground and the Blinders laid off Drake, "Come on guys, we're going."

I looked over to Drake surprised at the sudden surrender but he looked as clueless as me. Slowly, we followed Kyle out of the warehouse and back towards the castle. Behind me I could hear Arthur mutter, "Round Four- fail."

I still have no idea what he meant by that but something's telling me that I'm going to find out.


	5. Round Five

Kyle hadn't been the same since we surrendered. He claims that he's fine but he really isn't and everyone knows it even James. I know that James has in fact tried to get Kyle to open up about what Harvey whispered to him but he's refusing, saying that "you won't believe me". Even Vane and Faetal have tried to get Kyle to open up but they got nothing either, not even a sarcastic comment. The other defenders haven't even bothered trying. The only person, who was close to finding out was Amy but that's because she has that kind and secretive aura about her and everyone knows that she can be trusted and won't judge anyone.

Josh said that Harvey whispered something to him and that's why he surrendered but I still can't see Kyle surrendering for nothing so it must have been something very important but then again Kyle should know not to trust Harvey at all. I bet if the Jr defenders were here right now, they would be telling Kyle the same thing, the only difference being that Kyle would actually listen to them and we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe because they're older then him or that he was seen as the 5th defender with then while now he's seen as the 1st defender/ leader with us as his team.

On the subject of Kyle, I hadn't seen him for the whole day (okay it was 11am) and I knew that Vane had been desperately trying to find him but had no such luck. The archer was still probably searching for him. Leaving the training room I decided that maybe I should help look for my leader as well. However, on my way down to the living room, I heard talking coming from inside the store cupboard. Glancing around to make sure no one else was watching, I crept over to the slightly open door and peeped through the gap. Inside was Kyle sitting up against the wall talking to somehow. I glanced left and saw no one with him which meant one thing Kyle was talking to himself. To be fair everyone does it, I talk to myself when I'm alone but I don't have full scale conversations with myself.

I hoped that Kyle wasn't having another break down. I'm not even sure if Vane and Faetal know about the last one. I assume they don't as Vane and Faetal don't seem that worried about finding him. Maybe I should tell them…for Kyle's sake. They're his parents after all; they should know what to do.

I silently wander down the stairs, hoping to at least; see Faetal down there as well as Vane but due to my luck they weren't. I rolled my eyes behind Kook and Gildar's backs; the pair were watching TV and arguing over something I personally couldn't care less about. I continued my search and heard muttering coming from the kitchen. Using the ninja skills James taught me although I would have preferred Shaiden, I tip toed up to the kitchen door. Of course! Of all the places in the castle Vane would most likely be in the kitchen and it looked like he was muttering to Faetal.

"He won't talk to me!" Vane argued back to Faetal, "He normal tells me everything with a bit of encouragement."

"It's like he's being bullied again." Faetal whispered sadly, "He didn't tell us anything either. We had to prise that out of him and that took time and effort…"

"Something which we don't have." Vane replied. I suddenly realised that the defenders were due back to their conferences in two days! The Archer was right, they was not enough time to fix Kyle!

"Do you think it' because we left him?" Faetal asked looking directly at Vane with guilt in her eyes.

"Maybe but he had the Jr defenders with him…"

"But they left to go to that boarding school thing."

Taking a chance, I opened the kitchen door wider revealing myself to Vane and Faetal, who looked less than impressed that I had been eavesdropping on their conversation. I could tell that they wanted an explanation to why I had been doing so and they wanted one now.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop I was looking for you two." I started making sure my grammar was correct, I didn't want to annoy Faetal further, "But I might know my Kyle is upset or can help you get through to him at least."

Both of their expressions eased as they waited for my verdict and explanation, "Basically, a few months ago well, in September last year, Kyle kind of had a break down. James sorted him out and he's been fine until now anyway it was about the Jr defenders and I think he just felt alone in this castle especially at night."

"And we've only been told this now!" Faetal quite rightly exclaimed, "No one thought that we needed to know!"

"Well-" I tried to explain but was immediately cut off by Vane.

"Dude, this is not cool, we need to find baby bear now!"

"Shouldn't that be baby wolf?" I replied trying to lighten the mood. Both of them stared at me rather annoyed, "You know because he was the power of the wolf in JCD…Kyle's in the store cupboard upstairs."

They rushed past me, their footsteps clumping along the castle floor and up the stairs. I sighed, hoping that I did the right thing but deeply knowing that Kyle wasn't going to see it like that. Well, if he wanted to talk he would have to call me as I gathered my things and left the castle for the day. There was guilt that I didn't say bye to my other team mates but knowing that WWIII was about to kick off I decided to leave. Anyway, I needed to practice my gymnastics.

Sometimes I wonder if Annaka had to face these problems, whether she had to make difficult choices about her team and friends. I thought about this as I walked back home to pick up my gymnastics kit then I figured she probably didn't have these problems as far as I could make out Annaka was perfect and when she walked in the room everything would turn perfect again. It didn't help that Gildar couldn't go one day with mentioning his 'perfect' daughter then the others would join in with how great there kids were. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the others; I didn't have to live up to their reputation. I was glad I left the castle because if Kyle could hear my thoughts then he would have another thing to add to his 'why the second defender team aren't as good as the first' list.

I knew I sounded extremely jealous and the truth is that I was and probably still am. There was no doubt that Annaka was talented. She was pretty, a great fighter, good and understanding people and could easily defend herself if she went against Arthur. Knowing my luck, she probably did in the past and she could probably climb a tree and save a cat in double the time it took me to!

Anyway, I was about to turn down to my street when I noticed two very familiar faces smiling at me, and not a kind smile either. I took a step back in shock and horror (mostly because they knew where I live).

"Hello Zoey." Arthur greeted walking closer to me, "How fortunate that we should run into each other."

I looked over to Arthur's assistant of the day and discovered that it was… oh what's her name! Jasmine? Ruby? Topaz? Doesn't matter, all I wanted was to go home and get my gymnastics kit and maybe change, I was wearing my baby pink t-shirt with some leggings after all, hardly trendy.

"What do you want Arthur?" I asked half shouting, "Don't you have a village to plunder?"

"That's more Gildar's Fortier than mine. I can to hand you your challenge- round 5; I thought I would make it easier and actually give it to you, well not physically." Arthur explained.

"And why would I accept your round? There nothing but trouble!" I replied. I wasn't that stupid.

"What a shame! Seems like Kyle picked the wrong girl for his team…Annaka was always up for a challenge but then again, she didn't have to prove anything…" Arthur's assistant replied taunting me.

My anger that was already simmering began to boil and unfortunately for me there was no one there to turn it down. Hoping to prove myself I took a few steps forwards, towards Arthur and that girl…Emerald (that's her name!), waiting for my challenge. Arthur's smile had returned.

"As you wish. I would get ready if I were you. You won't have much time when the challenge has begun." Arthur stated.

Annoyed that I was now taking advice from the villain but knowing that he would be right anyway, I delved into my pocket and located my neon gem. I held it tight in my hand and hoped that no one was going to look out of their window any time soon.

"Neon Gem! Unlock the colour!" I shouted.

" **Neon Pink!"**

When I opened my eyes after the pink flash I was shocked to find myself not in Pearl Canyon but somewhere else entirely. I looked around, what I guess used to be a lounge. The room was a smashed to pieces, debris lay everywhere and the most disturbing and confusing element of the room was the chains attached to the wall. I turned my head the other way and saw a massive white screen. Who knows what that was used for! I started to walk around the room which meant having to kick bits of plaster out of the way and stepping over bricks but just as I was heading for the broken wooden door my foot hit something hard. Looking down I picked it up.

From what I could tell, it used to be some sort of weapon. Used to be. It had obviously been destroyed in a fight. I glanced around the room again hoping that its owner wasn't here. I put the item back down on the floor as I tried to ignore my imagination that someone was going to creep up from behind but as I did put the weapon down, I noticed a name carved into it, most of the letters had faded but I could clearly see and A and a W there.

Moving on, I eventually went through the door into the next room which was clearly a kitchen, well once. Again, debris lay everywhere but from what I could tell someone had tried to cook in here before. There was a tray in the oven and saucepan filled with water. I crouched down and opened the over door and pulled out the tray was had mouldy frozen chips lay out on it. I was starting to think that Challenge 5 was a survival round instead of fighting.

Standing back up straight, I walked over to the demolished kitchen table and picked up a random item of clothing left behind. A green hoodie. I decided to keep hold of it in case the castle would get cold at night even though that was 7 hours away, I had no idea how long I would be staying here and on that thought I sat down in one of the good chairs and leant on the only solid bit of the table waiting for something to happen.

"You know Annaka wouldn't be sitting around. She would be trying to find her way out." Arthur's voice said from within the room.

I sharply turned my head right and found Arthur leaning back against the cracked wall, "Yeah well, wasn't Annaka the red defender? I'm pink, different colours, different personalities."

"True but Annaka was pink for a short time before her powers went to you which, if going by your logic, means that Annaka's personality isn't far from yours." Arthur claimed.

"Guess she got kind." I replied sassing Arthur and I guess Annaka at the same time.

"Ha! Annaka was anything but kind to strangers or her enemies. Though I do think the reason she turned pink was because of her compassion. You see Annaka may not have been kind but she did have some compassion which she showed towards Ivar."

"Ivar? She couldn't have been smart then either."

"Maybe, or she could have been a genius! It could have been a moment of weakness or a moment of pure intelligence. Imagine if she was sucking up to him, showing him that maybe she wasn't worth hurting, showing him that she shouldn't have been dragged into this everlasting war!"

"I didn't want to be brought into this war." I muttered quietly to myself.

"Ah but Ivar chose you. He saw something in you, something that he couldn't see anywhere else. He saw something he could use against the Jr defenders and maybe that's why you don't like them."

"I never said I didn't like them!" I protested.

"True but you envy them, they defeated you with a lift of their pinkie finger and you want that power. You saw that power and decided that you wanted it! It's also why you hate Ivar and want to destroy him! He made you evil, he has caused all of this mess and that's why you're trying to defeat him. You're trying to prove him and everyone else wrong. You're trying to show the world that you can live up to Annaka Graphum standards and that's why you're also a great pink defender! You want to do your best and want to show something from it. Annaka only wanted the war to stop but you want something out of it and that's why Ivar chose you to be his little minion."

"Stop it! I'm not evil, your making me sound evil. I'm not evil!" I shouted at him. I wasn't evil and I'm still not. I'm a defender, I fight for the good like Annaka but I'm not like Annaka, I'm different from Annaka but if I can prove that I'm like her then I not evil. I'm not evil.

"Even good hearted people can be turned evil." Arthur muttered.

"I'm not evil! I'm not!" I shouted at him. Tears were running down my face and fell to the fall in a lump, my helmet was still on and the tears were dripping onto the visor. I still shouted those words from the tops of my lungs.

" _You're not evil Zoey! You're not and you're not going to be! I promise!"_

A stopped wailing like a six year old as soon as I heard that voice. That female voice. I looked up through my water drenched visor but couldn't see anything. I took my helmet off and wiped my eyes clean. I looked around the room trying to locate that voice and find who believed in me. I blinked a few times and it then sunk in that I was no longer in that mysterious place, I was in the training room again.

I looked around the room, it couldn't have been a dream, I was wearing my defender's outfit. My body was shaking from the crying and from the fear. I dragged myself over the wall and leant back against it still spluttering out tears and weeping.

Suddenly, the door burst open and my team mates flooded in, even Kyle, and ran to me. To say they looked shocked and concerned would have been the understatement of the year. I tried to speak to them but my voice was lost in my throat. Amy slid down next to me and the boys knelt in front of my.

Swallowing, I opened my mouth, "I'm not evil and I don't hate Annaka."

I burst into tears again not registering the looks on my fellow team mates faces but I could have guessed that they would be shocked. I heard movement around me and then the door slam shut. I looked up to see if I was alone. To my surprise they had all left except Kyle, who had now taken a cross-legged position on the floor.

"Arthur kindly told us that he had given you your Round." He started relieving me of the fact that it was real and not some dream, "It was called Envy and Evil by the way but I guess that was obvious."

"I don't hate Annaka." I repeated. I was probably already in Kyle's bad books and I didn't want to make things worse.

"I know." He replied, "But I guess just because she's your predecessor, it doesn't mean that you have to like her. I figure you were envy her than dislike her anyway."

I knew he was right. I probably was and still am envious of her, "She was a great defender though."

"Yeah, but she was born one. She had the skill from her birth. Her parents are Ballista and Gildar! Have you seen those two defending? They have good aim, not as good as Skabb's though." Kyle said getting side tracked, "Anyway, my point is, for a normal human being, you're doing great."

"Thanks." I said back, "You're good at talking to people and solving their problems."

"Yeah, ironic as I can't solve my own!"

"I only told your parents because I thought that you might relapse again, after what Harvey said to you." I explained to Kyle.

"Doesn't matter. They were bound to find out eventually. If you didn't tell them then it would have been a 'hey guys do you remember when I had that massive break down' thing and I would have had to explain it to them anyway."

"So what happened?" I asked getting the attention of me.

"Nothing really, they asked, I explained, they felt guilty, I told them not to worry, I'll be fine." Kyle replied briefly, "They're going away again tomorrow which probably explains the guilt."

"Did you tell them what Harvey said?" I asked hoping that I would find out.

"Nope, it wasn't important anyway. He was most likely lying." He replied. Kyle then looked down to my side. I followed his gaze and found the green hoodie next to me.

"I found it where Arthur sent me." I explained to which Kyle nodded. He picked it up and inspected it.

"You can have it." I said, "It's quite boyish isn't it."

"Yep." Kyle replied. He seemed fascinated by the hoodie, "You should probably change out of the defender outfit now."

I looked down to see my neon outfit still on. I laughed slightly as Kyle stood up with the hoodie in his hand.

"You're not evil Zoey; you wouldn't be a defender if you were." He replied reassuring me and then he held up the hoodie, "And thanks."

"Your welcome." I shouted as he left the door.

Kyle was right; Harvey was probably lying to him which means that Arthur was obviously trying to mess with my mind. Standing up, I powered down and sighed as I realised that I never made it to my bedroom to get changed. I left the training room with a clear head and a happier mind. As long as I have my team mates, I'll be okay.


	6. Round Six

**A/N: Okay, the last chapter of Neon. I hope you've all enjoyed it and I hope this chapter is a blast (pun intended-you'll get it later on ;-)). Also, this chapter is written in present time unlike the others which was past and the italics are for thoughts in their heads. Enjoy!**

Waking up at 6am really sucks. There is nothing on telly and all my friends are still asleep. Mum said that I got myself into a routine that I can't get out of now while Dad just laughed about it. I didn't mind at the time because all of the other defenders were there and it was guaranteed that Knightriss or Thorne would be up and they were no pleasant enough to have a conversation with. They mostly asked about school and how it was going. Apparently Splat school is completely different to state school and the two British defenders were eager to learn about a world they had never stepped a foot into.

I asked my parent if it was hard and frustrating having to leave the Castle 13 years ago and not know a clue about the normal lives of people. My mum claimed that they knew some things as back in the day when attacks actually became King or Queen of the castle, they would bring traditions from their home life to the castle so my parents knew the basics although my mum then did comment on how she did have to stop Dad from shooting down any animal that came near or house. I nodded in reply then moved onto lunch.

Also the castle has become very…dull since the defenders left. I guess I realised it when the Jr defenders were gone but never really registered it. I blame Kook to be honest, he's the loud one but so are Gildar and Skabb and Ballista can get very frustrated with everyone…so maybe the castle isn't dull just peaceful? Whatever it is, it's unnatural and not welcome here, there is something always going on in the castle.

Speaking of activity, the front door just slammed meaning James had arrived and…two minutes late. Someone's slacking. I jump of my bed and try to locate my slippers. How hard is it to find a pair of slippers in a very tidy room? And before you make assumptions, they are not yellow! They're Marvel Avengers more specifically Hawkeye. Anyway, I look under my bed and give a sigh of defeat when they're not there. I check my wardrobe and even my bathroom but no luck which means I would have to take drastic measures. I walk over to the forbidden cupboard (basically it's where most of my presents from relatives go) and search for them. Them being the brown and yellowed stripped slipper socks my great aunt brought me for my birthday one year. Danny nicked named them the stinger because Bumble Bees sting but Zsa-Zsa then corrected him by saying that if the slippers actually stung my feet then they would be destroyed. I shove them on my feet; grab my dressing gown from behind my bedroom door (yes, its yellow!) and walk down to the base where James would hopefully be setting up.

"Hey." I greet as I see James looking at the still broken computer. I slide onto my yellow stall and wait until he's done whatever task he's doing this morning.

"Hello Kyle." James replies turning around and walking towards the desk. I notice immediately that he avoided my gaze when he said that sentence.

"Any reason, you're not looking at me?" I ask bluntly. That's one of James's life rules. If you want an answer, ask the question.

"Yes there is actually Kyle." He starts then clears his throat, "You know back at the tournament day, you saw me with that woman…"

Yes of course! How could I forget that moment of my life? I nod my head and he continues, "Well long story short, she's my wife and she had a new job in Toronto which means we have to move so I'm leaving today."

My heart stops beating for a second and my eyes widen in shock. James was leaving! He was leaving me alone in this castle to look after a team! No way was he going to do this. I open my mouth but James immediately stops me.

"I only came for my things and to set you up for the future. I know this is very short notice and I'm sorry." He continues whilst walking over to the left side of the room and picking up a long brown wooden box. He passes it to me and I look inside confused as the other neon gems are in there. By others I mean Amy's, Drake's, Josh's and Zoey's

"I ask for them in at the end of each day in case they lose them at home or their parents find them." He explains briefly.

"I can't believe you're going." I mutter back filling in the silence, "You've been my mentor from day 1, what am I going to do without you?"

"I'm sure you'll survive. You're a Jr defender after all." He comments then he leans in close, "And no matter what anyone thinks Jr defenders survive."

I look up at him in shock. Is he telling me that he still believes the Jr defenders are out there?

"I know that hoodie Zoey brought back from her mission was Danny's. I would recognise that scent anywhere. Never stop looking Kyle." He says looking at me, "And never give up on yourself. Although it may not have seemed like it, I never gave up on you. Any of you."

"Thanks James." I reply and I swear that I'm about to start crying. Why is everyone leaving? "I'm going to miss you!"

"Whether I like it or not Kyle, I'm going to miss you too." He says then turns back to the computer, "It's updated with all of the information you will need but here…"

James hands me small memory stick. I take it and shove it into my dressing gown pocket. The secret passage door opens and James collects his brief case, "It was good working here and knowing you all. Good bye Kyle Temple."

"Good bye James Cadhit." I reply with my eyes watering.

James nods and walks through the secret passage and the door shuts behind him. I look around her room and suddenly feel how lonely it is. I walk back upstairs, with the Neon gems and into the kitchen for an early breakfast. I switch on the mini TV in the kitchen and flick through the channels. I stop at an ancient Disney film, Pocahontas 2. Feeling like I have no choice, I keep it on as background noise.

" _Urgh! I hated this movie. It's filled with non-historical nonsense. Okay so she goes off with the correct and historical lover but after the first movie no one cares. They want Pocahontas with John Smith!"_

My eyes widen and I turned around shock. The sound of the toast popping makes me jump a foot in the air but for once I ignore the food. My eyes are glued to the table. Slowly, I walk towards it and reach out to that voice. I almost touch them but I'm cut off.

" _I wouldn't do that if I were you, it'll ruin the imagination." They say._

I retract my hand. I don't want my imagination to fade because sitting on the kitchen table, glancing at the TV is Zsa-Zsa Cart. I blink and rub my eyes but she's still there and now she's staring at me with a soft smile. She wasn't known for smiling but when she did, it was so reassuring. She jumps off the kitchen table and walks towards me.

"How are you…I thought you…" I start but don't finish. I'm in too much shock.

" _I'm not really here Kyle." She says to me, "It's your imagination projecting me to life. My thoughts are actually your thoughts, well your unconscious thoughts anyway. The thoughts that you keep ignoring."_

"So I'm having a break down?" I ask clearly not pleased.

" _I guess so. It could just be your way of dealing with everything that has gone on throughout this past year. I left you, the others left you, James left you, your parents left you but they did come back…my point is that frankly Kyle, you've given up on crying." Zsa-Zsa told me to which I realise that she was most likely true. I trust everything that comes out of Zsa-Zsa's mouth which is probably why my mind decided to project her and not the others._

"Yeah well I learnt a very valuable lesson when I did have my break down." I say, "That you weren't coming back."

I knew that I was technically talking to myself and that if one of my friends were to walk through the castle door, they would certainly be welcomed with a very strange sight of my shouting to myself but there was just something so satisfying with getting everything off my chest to the people who caused it, harsh as it seems. The bad thing was that my mind had projected Zsa-Zsa so perfectly, so correctly that she was the voice of trust in my head and when I told her my secrets, she looked hurt but I carried on anyway, she was only in my imagination. That was not going to stop me no matter what.

My rant ended and I look up at Zsa-Zsa. She sighs to herself and was about to open her mouth when my laptop started beeping. Leaving the kitchen and walking into the main room, I locate my laptop and lift the lid up to reveal a Facetime request from Arthur Song. I squint my eyes slowly confused and turn my head to face imaginary Zsa-Zsa but she had gone. I decided to accept the call and was greeted by Arthur, seemingly in a forest, alone.

"Arthur! Why are you calling the enemy at 6am?" I ask getting straight to the point.

"Well Kyle, I believe that it's your Round now and I wanted to give you and heads up as it were." Arthur told me getting to the point as well. Clearly it was too early for his playful banter, "Round six is called survival. Enjoy!"

With that he shut facetime and my screensaver appeared. Looking at the photo of the nine original defenders, my mind wonders to what he meant by survival. Forest survival? Survival in harsh weathers?

" _Arthur always tells the truth when he gives clues but they might not be as straight forward as they seem. By the way that piece of toast is getting cold."_

I spin my neck around and instead of Zsa-Zsa being projected, it's Jack Tonelli. No surprise really. Jack was always in control something which I need to be now. I get up off the chair walk back to the kitchen to grab my toast and butter it, all while Jack is watching me. I turn back around whilst chewing my toast and look straight at Jack telling him to continue his theory.

" _I would get prepared Kyle, maybe even activate your neon gem. I doubt Arthur has planned some wild adventure in the park!"_

"I know that." I reply back. I'm still chewing my lukewarm toast so it comes out all muffled but I don't care, "So what else should I do?"

" _Have a plan." Jack continues, "Then you have something to rely on when things go haywire."_

"But plans don't always work though do they?" I ask rhetorically. Of course Jack knows that which is why my head and projected the 'it's not my fault' look and 'I couldn't have done anything else look'.

" _You know I never wanted to leave you alone. If anything I would have left you with Annaka or Danny then at least you wouldn't be here having imaginary conversations with me and these rounds could have been fought as a team and not separately."_

I nod in agreement and understanding. Deep down I knew that it wasn't Jack's plan to leave me here alone. If there's one thing a defender hates, it's being alone but that's how I spent most of my life and I hated every second of it until I moved to this castle and met the Jr defenders then it all went downhill again. Why does it always happen to me? Why am I destined to be alone? Have I offended anyone? Been horrible to some important person? I don't think so! So, why am I the one having imaginary conversations with people who are no longer here? Why does Ivar hate me so much?

" _Ivar doesn't hate you personally. It's just who you are and who you're connected to. You know that your mum played a part in Ivar's fall all those years ago. I bet it's really your parents Ivar angry at like he's angry with my dad."_

I look across the room to find that Jack had vanished. Guess my lesson and advice in control was over so I glance across the room to locate Annaka Graphum who seems to be the chosen Jr defender who has been projected. Trust Annaka to try and see the best in people…well family members at least. I don't know how it happened but after we left Astrid's palace after Overdrive she seemed obsessed with Ivar and I never got the chance to ask why.

"If he's angry with the defenders then why doesn't he go after them?" I ask her.

Annaka twist her mouth to the side of her face while she thinks of a suitable answer. I say she does, what I really mean is that I make Annaka twist her mouth and think of a suitable answer. She glances to the small TV and watches it. I follow her gaze and see that Pocahontas has moved on from speaking and is now singing 'Where do I go from here?'

" _Maybe he gave up in them. After all they did defeat him once before, maybe he thought because we're younger he would defeat us easier."_

"Obviously that worked out well. We got given special powers and defender suits for no apparent reason. Why did we get them? Why not our parents?" I ask her knowing that she won't have the answer, "Anyway Jack said I should change…"

" _Oh! Been speaking to Jack have we?" She replied in a mock tone, "And there we me thinking that our relationship was special and you were missing me terribly."_

I smirked at the Annaka like comment and grabbed my neon gem from the long rectangular box, "Neon Gem! Unlock the colour!"

" **Neon Yellow!"**

I can hear Annaka laughing when the flashing had stopped. Realising that she's still there (kind of), I take my helmet off and place in on the kitchen table. I look up at her waiting for an explanation to the laughing but I can already guess why.

" _Unlock the colour? Wow! Roll calls have really done downhill since I stopped being a defender! And not to mention the outfit! Where's the individuality? Okay, I'm glad that I didn't have to wear that around Pearl Canyon."_

"The roll call just came out of my head- as a joke- and the others loved it and for the individuality, each defender has a different shape on their helmet." I respond to Annaka, "And if you don't mind me, I have some scanning to do."

I pick up my helmet along with the remaining Neon gems and walk back down to the control room where I use the broken computer to scan for Arthur or any Blinders. While I do all this, Annaka doesn't say a word and I don't dare turn around because I know the outfit would just send her into hysterics. The computer scans around Pearl Canyon for anything suspicious and comes back negative which is a worry. Going from Zoey's experience when Arthur tells you a plan, it normally happens straight away.

" _Work on a Saturday? You've gotten boring Kyle!"_

I turn around and discover a grinning Danny Peck behind me, who instead of sitting on perfectly good stalls has decided that the table with the map of Pearl Canyon on will do nicely. I ignore his comment and continue to look back at the screen to rerun the scans. I would broaden the search but James never got round to fixing that function. I can hear Danny getting restless already. He never did have a long attention span.

" _What do you do to liven things up around here?" He asks as he looks around the room. Nothing has changed since he's left so I don't know what he's expecting, "Are there still games in the training room?"_

"NO! I had to tidy those up the other day and I don't want them out of alphabetical order!" I reply sharply. It took me forever to do that, "Anyway play time's over."

" _Play time is never over Kyle!" Danny responds immediately, of course he would think that, "Play time never ends, you just have to make a game out of it."_

"Easy for you! You weren't the one having to fight Blinders, which, by the way, are very hard to fight!"

" _Hey! I did my fair share of fighting. It's not easy being this skilled you know. Oh and a bit of advice. Put your helmet back on. It's time to make a game out of survival."_

I looked at Danny confused before reaching for my helmet and holding in front of me. Turning back around to the screen, my eyes widen with shock as I had missed the increasing beeping of the computer. On the screen were the words impact and probability percentage of it happening. Something was heading straight for the castle. The impact percentage was slowly increasing. 56%...67%...89%...quickly I turned on my wrist communicator (and other useful apps).

"Neon yellow to team mates. Mayday! May-"

Before I could even finish that word, a loud crash thundered throughout the castle and was thrown backwards due to the collision. My body was flipping through the air, I lost grasp of my helmet and I bashed into the control room wall then fell flat onto my stomach. I shut my eyes tight as debris was flying everywhere and the castle was still shaking. My head ache like a large padlock had been dropped on it. The rest of my body wasn't aching too badly; my defender suit must have protected me. I leant on my forearms after the shaking had stopped and looked around the room then at myself.

The room was destroyed. The computer had been blown to pieces and was beyond repair. The screen that once has the screensaver of the castle was in little pieces on the floor whilst the table and stalls had been blown against the wall adjacent to me, mangled into one another. Pieces of the ceiling had collapsed onto the floor covering up whatever damage had been and my helmet visor had also been smashed beyond repair and the helmet itself had a large crack in it. My defender outfit had powered down in the blast or whatever it was and my clothes torn. I push up off my forearms and stand on two feet. Wobbling as I do so, I make it over to the staircase which thankfully hasn't been blocked before I remember my Neon gem. I scan the room for it only to discover glimmering pieces of it on the floor. My Neon gem is well and truly smashed.

I eventually make it back onto the castle corridor and just like the control room, it's covered in debris and ceiling. A cool breeze is coming from the living room. Slowly, I make my way to what remains of the door and peak inside. Whatever had been aimed at the castle impacted at the living area as the whole wall facing the forest was gone. The floor was falling to pieces and dropping off into the moat below. I step away from the disaster zone and head back towards the main room.

As soon as I step inside, the remaining Neon gems are on the floor in millions of pieces as well. The others will be pleased! The room it's self isn't that bad. There is some debris from the living room but the ceiling isn't collapsing meaning that most of the damage is on the opposite side of the castle. My laptop is still okay and works fine as I turn it on.

A loud crash from the opposite end of the castle frightens me to death causing my breathing to increase rapidly. My imagination runs wild and now I'm thinking of every worst case scenario involving every Doctor Villain. Of course the unlikely hood of a Dalek coming from the door is zilch but anything could happen now. To make matters worse, I hear a noise coming from the kitchen. Somewhere, I get the bravery to go and check it out. This part of the castle is safe…ish so nothing major could go wrong unless the noise is Cyberman…

" _Kyle! Snap out of it!" Jack shouts at me before I leave the main room, "Pull yourself together!"_

" _There is no living thing or mechanical thing in this castle that can hurt you." Zsa-Zsa reassures me._

" _It's probably just the TV from earlier." Danny says as I enter the kitchen, "Hey Annaka, check out what Pocahontas is wearing."_

" _Oh wow! That's something and not to mention it doesn't go with her skin tone!" Annaka comments. Jack then coughs at the pair of them, "Oh yeah. Don't worry Kyle, you'll be okay."_

"Thanks guys." I say while cautiously watching the TV, "I think."

My head still aches from the collision with the wall and the sensible part of me is telling me to go to the hospital and check it out. I leave the kitchen and try to open the castle doors but their locked. I push again but nothing. Fear starts to eat away at me as I now bang on the castle doors hoping that someone would hear me but deeply knowing that no one will. Suddenly the lights go out meaning the power has been cut off.

"Kyle?" A female voice from inside the main room asks.

I run back in there like a shot to discover my team mates there. Amy's looking around the place in shock at the debris; Zoey and Drake have discovered their broken Neon gems and can't quite believe it while Josh is on my laptop, hopefully looking for help.

I enter the room and slide down the wall. The others look up at me but Amy's the one who comes over and sits next to me. The others take their positions in the room. I don't bother ask how they got into the castle as I have already figured it out. They must have teleported here before the power surge. No one really says anything and in this moment of silence I realise that I may have dislocated my shoulder during the blast.

We sit like this for a few minutes, everyone reminiscing about past memories of the Neon Power. They haven't asked about James yet and I haven't got the strength to tell them but I think they know that he wasn't here but knowing James he probably left them a video message explaining his absence.

"Anyone else get that email from James?" Drake asks answering my own question.

"The one about him leaving? Yep." Josh replies, "Talk about picking your moment."

"What do we do know?" Zoey askes, "Normally it's James who locates the powers, isn't it?"

I look over at Zoey and think. James did design the overdrive powers but it was Charles who had the gems and the Jr defenders and I discovered the dino time powers.

"It's a shame none of us have back-ups like James." Amy comments.

I smile but then remember something. I reach down into my dressing gown pocket…I was still in my Pjs, how nice for everyone to see…and feel it. I pull out the memory stick that James gave me just hours ago and I get into action.

"Josh, pass me my laptop." I order.

Josh looks up surprise at my sudden surge of life but passes it to me anyway. I open the lid and check the battery life. I have enough so I insert the memory stick and wait for it to download. The others get up from their sitting positions and come and crouch around me. My laptop opens the file up revealing video documents. I click on the first one I see.

"Thousands of years ago, 10 gems were created to fight the forces of evil and were based off the spirits of certain animals. These gems were created to bond with certain individuals with powers. When bonded, the gem would give these special humans outfits beyond their time." The video started and Charles appeared at the screen, behind him were pictures of defenders suits I had never seen before. These ones, like the JCD, were based off animals and they had more colours, "These people were given the name of Defenders and they would protect our earth. They gained treasures beyond out beliefs and were given Castles as rewards for their bravery but before 10 defenders were selected to actually use the gems, evil forces arrived and tried to take the gems known as the Jungle Force power. These people were named attackers. For Centuries, Defenders and Attacker were at war, the defenders trying to protect the gems and the attackers trying to take them. The fear of what could happen if the attackers actually got hold of the gems became too much for 10 new gems were created. However, over the years the reason for the war got lost and the defenders only took interest in their processions while the attackers looked for new ways of power but some of the defenders still remembered the gems and went searching for them. When they located the Gems, the newest editions ones were there but only 5 of the Jungle Force ones had survived. The defenders searched for the 5 missing ones but had failed and came to the conclusion that the others had been destroyed in battle. To stop this from happening to the other gems, the defenders agreed to give the gems to a family who would look after them for generations to come until the right defenders were born. I only have the red, blue, green, pink and yellow Jungle Force gems in my possession along with the other gems."

The video stopped there and I sat there letting the information sink in. The JCD, Neon and now Jungle Force gems had been created over thousands of years ago? I was one of the chosen defenders? The defenders were actually the good guys? Of course we were! Glancing over at my teams mates, I can tell that there in shock and surprise at the video as well. No saying a word, I click onto the next video of Charles.

"Following the success of the bonding with the Jr defenders and the now named JCD gems, I have decided to unmask the Defenders Crafts." He introduced and behind him were 5 massive machines based off the animals of our JCD powers, "Defender Craft 1 is the main base where everything happens, Defender Craft 2 is the rocket which can take the Jr defenders as far as space if needs be, Defender Craft 3 is an plane which can be piloted and take the Jr defenders all over the world, Defender Craft 4 is the information base and radar which gains information from attackers and Ivar and Defender Craft 5 has been designed to work under water. When the time is right I hope to introduce the Jr defenders and hope they will use them well and as I back up, hidden inside Defender Craft 1 are the 5 remaining Jungle Force Gems."

I pause the video, stand up and look at my team mates. They watch me cautiously as if they are unaware of my next move but deep down they know what's going to happen. I can still hear Pocahontas in the background, singing her song.

" _The past is gone. I must move on from hear."_

"So what's the plan?" Drake asks.

"Well, firstly eat, get dressed then my good friends." I start as I look outside the castle window I then turn round to face them, picking up my laptop as I do so, "We're going to find some Jungle Force Gems."

 **The End**

 **To be continued in the final instalment of: Splatalot defenders: Jungle Force**

 **A/n: What did you guys think? Hope you all enjoyed it and all will be made clear soon.**


End file.
